The invention relates generally to apparatus and compositions useful for grouting tiles and other building materials having interstices therebetween.
The placement of various flat or curved pieces of ceramic, stone, concrete, or other material, collectively referred to as “tile”, onto floors, walls, counter tops, or other surfaces in a building is an ancient tradition. Tile is installed by adhering multiple tiles to the area to be covered and thereafter filling the spaces between the tiles with a grout.
In laying the tile on a floor, for example, the craftsman applies an adhesive (e.g., thin set mortar) to the floor. Then, tiles are positioned on the adhesive while inserting spacers between the tile for proper spacing, and the adhesive is allowed to set (e.g., overnight). Once set, the tile spacers are removed and a grout is applied to fill the spaces around the tile that have been preserved by the tile spacers. Grout often consists of a cementitious mixture of fine aggregates mixed into a cementing agent with a solvent (e.g., water), but made so thin as to flow almost like cream. The cementing agent may comprise a polymeric adhesive material (e.g., a resin-based grout, such as an epoxy) or simply Portland cement. The aggregates are typically sand and/or crushed stone. The addition of dyes and pigments to the cementitious materials has also enjoyed wide application in all of the above mentioned materials. Such grouts enjoy broad application in construction materials, tile setting, wall and pool plasters, stucco, self-leveling compounds, roofing tiles, and patches.
Application of grout to a tile surface such as a tile floor or wall has traditionally and conventionally been done almost entirely by hand in that the workman uses a hand trowel working on hands and knees or squatting in small areas by pouring the grout between the tiles and by hand troweling the excess grout to form the grouting joints while removing the excess to leave a smooth grouting joint between adjacent tiles.
Cementitious grouts are in common use. Polymeric resin-based grouts are also known. By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,833,178 describes an epoxy resin-based grout composition that requires addition of a hardener thereto and mixing prior to use. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,854,267; 3,859,233; and 4,472,540 describe non-epoxy polymer resin-based grout compositions that either contain sand or have a smooth-textured finish that is undesirable in many applications.
The present invention overcomes and eliminates the necessity for applying grout with hand trowels while greatly increasing the speed of application without reducing the workmanship or structural integrity of the grouting joints and which quickly and expeditiously allows for the application of the grout.